Solution Architect who builds systems that scale and teams that deliver.

15+ years designing enterprise platforms across banking, aviation, and corporate sectors. Java, microservices, distributed systems. Based in Auckland, NZ.

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Auckland, NZ Available now
15+years of experience
25engineers led on a single project
3industries: banking, aviation, corporate
4departments built from scratch
Projects

What I build outside work

Side projects solving real problems - growing engineers faster and automating hiring.

EdTech

Developer growth platform

A platform helping technical specialists accelerate their career through hands-on problem-solving and structured development plans. Already used inside my current organisation with positive feedback from employees and HR. Helped juniors reach mid-level proficiency in under a year.

Kotlin Spring Boot React Cloud-hosted
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Hiring tool

Candidate testing service

An automated coding assessment platform for hiring. Candidates solve tasks - console output prediction, SQL queries, algorithm challenges - in a browser-based editor with syntax highlighting and instant validation.

React Auto-grading SQL Algorithms
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Architecture Example

Integration platform at enterprise scale

Case study: redesigning system integrations at the largest bank in Eastern Europe.

C4 - System Context

High-level view: who interacts with the integration platform and why

Business Systems CRM, Loans, Cards, Payments, HR Integration Platform Adapter-based architecture REST / gRPC / Kafka / SOAP ~7,000 ops/sec [Software System] Legacy Systems Proprietary queues, SOAP, email protocols External Partners Aeroflot, 3rd-party APIs Monitoring & Ops Splunk, Grafana REST/gRPC/MQ/... SOAP/Queue APIs Metrics

Impact: Time-to-market for new integrations dropped from 3 months to 2 weeks. Adapters released independently and reused without additional approvals. Protocol changes (REST to Kafka) required config-only updates. Components scaled individually to meet load.

C4 - Container: Basic Adapter Concept

Core idea: lightweight protocol adapters connected via internal queue

BUSINESS System A REST In-Adapter Inner Queue REST Out-Adapter BUSINESS System B REST REST Each adapter is an independent deployment unit with its own release cycle

C4 - Container: Independent Scaling

Multiple business systems reuse existing adapters, each in-adapter scales independently

System A System B System C REST IN-ADAPTER instance 1 REST IN-ADAPTER instance 2 REST IN-ADAPTER instance 3 Inner Queue REST Out-Adapter TARGET System D Scale inbound adapters to match consumer load, keep outbound at existing capacity

C4 - Container: Protocol Switching

Switching from REST to Kafka requires only service mesh config changes, not code

BUSINESS System A REST In-Adapter Queue KAFKA Out-Adapter REST Out-Adapter KAFKA Topic System B REST publish REST Switch protocols by changing service mesh config, no code changes needed

C4 - Component Diagram: REST In-Adapter

Internal structure: request pipeline, config-driven routing, and sidecar observability

REST IN-ADAPTER [Container] CALLER System A COMPONENT HTTP Listener COMPONENT Validator COMPONENT Msg Transformer COMPONENT Queue Publisher with Outbox Queue HTTP COMPONENT Config Store COMPONENT Config Cache transformation config routing config SIDECARS SIDECAR Metrics Publisher SIDECAR Log Publisher SIDECAR Audit Config-driven routing and transformation enable protocol switching without redeployment
Toolkit

Technical skills

Deep technical expertise combined with hands-on leadership.

Languages

Java, Kotlin, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS

Frameworks

Spring Boot, Hibernate, React, Camunda BPMN, KeyCloak

Architecture

Microservices, Event-Driven, Service Mesh, Integration Patterns

Infrastructure

Kubernetes, OpenShift, Istio, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Docker

Cloud & CI/CD

AWS-compatible clouds, S3, Jenkins, GitLab CI, SonarQube

Build & Data

Maven, Gradle, Flyway, Liquibase, PostgreSQL

Leadership

Teams of 10-25, Agile/Scrum, Mentoring, Code review

Tooling

Jira, Confluence, Grafana, Splunk, ScriptRunner

Career

Professional experience

From full-stack development to architecture to engineering leadership across banking, aviation, and corporate sectors.

Jun 2023 - Present
Team Leader / Solution Architect
HR-Link · Remote
Designed flagship corporate document management service with focus on UX and customer loyalty. Implemented business metrics that revealed customer pain points and required improvements in process and software, resulting in cutting document signing time in half. Built and led a new development department of 12 engineers across 2 cross-functional teams. Established performance metrics and engineering processes from requirement requisition and development to 3rd line of support. Drove adoption of modern best practices into enterprise IT landscape.
Nov 2022 - Jun 2023
Team Leader / Solution Architect
YLab · Remote
Architected and implemented a new integration system to replace the legacy document delivery platform, increasing throughput from 100 to 500 documents per second on the same hardware, with potential for horizontal scaling. This improvement enabled the acquisition of additional clients almost immediately. Recruited and managed a cross-functional distributed team of 18 engineers across different countries and timezones, overseeing the full project lifecycle from requirements to production. Ensured scalability, reliability, and maintainability through proactive design reviews and performance benchmarking.
Sep 2018 - Nov 2022
Team Leader / Solution Architect
Sber Bank · Moscow / Remote
Designed an integration platform connecting corporate systems via REST, gRPC, and Kafka for the largest bank in Eastern Europe, handling about 7,000 client operations per second. The solution reduced time-to-market for business integrations from 3 months to 2 weeks through use of adapters and a service mesh approach. Led the Aeroflot Loyalty Program project: orchestrated 4 cross-functional teams (6 engineers each, 24 total) to deliver secure cross-corporate integration between Sberbank and Aeroflot, the national airline of Russia.
Oct 2012 - Sep 2018
Full-Stack Developer / Solution Architect
Sber Bank / SberTech · Novosibirsk, Moscow
Built a business monitoring system integrating with Splunk, enabling unified metric collection across apps, which increased observability and reduced client incidents by 20%, bringing service unavailability to no more than 1 day per month for critical services. Developed an IntelliJ IDEA plugin reducing boilerplate code and accelerating CRUD form generation. Delivered reusable UI components (Grid, Tree Grid, Breadcrumbs) for internal web platforms.
Apr 2011 - Oct 2012
Full-Stack Developer
AIS Technologies (PinPay Express) · Novosibirsk
Implemented billing server handling credit accounting, payment and commission processing. Integrated payment services including WebMoney, YandexMoney, and Unistream. Developed terminal software using Java, Qt, and WebKit.
Nov 2010 - Mar 2011
Software Developer
Sirint · Novosibirsk
Delivered mobile and web applications: weather forecast aggregator, webinar platform, and Yandex Metrics analyzer. Built apps for iOS, Android, and J2ME platforms.
Education

Academic background

MSc, Automation and Control

Novosibirsk State Technical University, 2012

BSc, Informatics & Computer Engineering

Novosibirsk State Technical University, 2010

Contact

Let's work together

Based in Auckland. Open to opportunities across New Zealand.

gorodov.loreforge@gmail.com LinkedIn +64 22 610 9287